“…Human BMEC cell lines 4LHBMEC 28 (used in most experiments), TrHBMEC 10 and HBMEC60 30 (kindly provided by Dr CE van der Schoot, CLB, Amsterdam, The Netherlands) were cultured in endothelial cell culture medium consisting of medium 199, 10% new born calf serum, 1% glutamine (Gibco, Grand Island, NY, USA), 10% human pooled serum (CLB, or BioWhittaker, Walkersville, MD, USA), 0.15 mg/ml crude endothelial cell growth factor and 5 IU/ml heparin at 37°C and 5% CO 2 in six-well plates coated with fibronectin (kindly provided by Dr JA van Mourik (CLB)) and passaged twice a week by detachment by trypsin-EDTA (BioWhittaker). HUVEC were isolated as described by Jaffe et al 31 from umbilical cords obtained from the department of Gynecology and Obstetrics (Vrije Universiteit Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands) after informed consent.…”